Jamal Murray is heading into his third year in a Nuggets uniform, and his second year starting.
He experienced a huge jump in his stats and put himself in a position to be the starting point guard for a long time. The Nuggets depend on his sharpshooting and aggressive play-style in their high-powered offense. He led the team in the late-game scenario last season, along with other break-out players Gary Harris and Nikola Jokic.
Now, we all know that he is already lethal on the offensive side of the ball. So what can we expect from Jamal Murray in the future?
Well, for starters, he has to continue making defenders pay from deep.
Murray got many comparisons to great shooters coming out of college, and last year, we started seeing that come to fruition even more. His three-point percentage jumped over four percent last season, and he just looked more confident with his shot. It wasn’t just the three-point percentage that was impressive though, it was the times of his shots as well. Being in the clutch and not being afraid to take the big three is a great step, especially in the shoes of Murray.
Jamal has to also stay aggressive and get to the line more often.
His career free-throw percentage is currently close to 90 percent, 89.8 to be more specific. Taking this into effect, if he were to keep this up for a few more years, this percentage would put him at the fifth highest free-throw percentage in NBA history. (per basketball-reference) If Murray is so automatic at the foul line, then he needs to focus on getting there more often.
Jamal has to step up and make better decisions on the court.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good passer, and when you play with a guy like Nikola Jokic, that’s all you need. That being said, Murray started 80 of 81 games played, and he only had a 3:2 assist-to-turnover ratio. I’m not saying it needs to be ridiculously higher, it just needs to be established that the team knows he’s going to get a couple or few assists before a turnover. Good ball movement and play helps a team’s offense dramatically, and it should start here.
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Well, that should do it here today. I think that Jamal Murray has all of the right tools and ethics to continue making an impact to his offensive game, and I look forward to seeing that impact during the upcoming season.
ALL OF JAMAL MURRAY’S STATS WERE FOUND ON BASKETBALL-REFERENCE.COM.